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[Introduction] Norway's sovereign wealth fund made a profit of $138 billion in the first half of the year

China Fund News reporter Taylor

Hello everyone, let’s continue to pay brief attention to the news from overseas markets tonight.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund makes $138 billion in first half of year

Norway's massive sovereign wealth fund announced on Wednesday that it had made a profit of 1.48 trillion Norwegian crowns ($138 billion, equivalent to more than 980 billion yuan) in the first half of 2024 as global stock markets rose, mainly thanks to strong returns on investments in technology stocks.

The sovereign wealth fund, known as the "global government pension fund," is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a total value of 17.75 trillion Norwegian kroner as of the end of June.

The fund's overall return in the first half of the year was 8.6%, 0.04 percentage points lower than the return of its benchmark index.

Chief Executive Nicolai Tangen said equity investments had delivered "very strong" returns in the first half of the year.

Tangen noted that “this result was mainly driven by technology stocks, as demand for new solutions in artificial intelligence increased.”

Norway's sovereign wealth fund said its equity portfolio achieved a 12.5 percent return in the first half of the year, while its fixed income and unlisted real estate portfolios suffered slight losses.

The fund, which reported a minus 17.7% return on its unlisted renewable energy infrastructure portfolio in the first six months of the year, said higher funding costs had negatively impacted the value of investments in the January-June period.

Looking ahead, Tangen said at a news conference that the stock market is not expected to rise as in previous years.

Tangen said global stock markets now face more risks due to increased uncertainty and a "completely different geopolitical situation."

As one of the world's largest investment institutions, the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund was established in the 1990s to invest the Norwegian government's oil and gas production revenue. So far, the fund has invested in more than 8,700 companies in more than 70 countries around the world.

The top three holdings of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund are Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia.

US stocks rose

In the U.S. stock market tonight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 200 points, and the Nasdaq index dived slightly at the beginning of the session, and then staged a "V-shaped" rebound!

Moscow Exchange stocks suddenly suspended trading at 16:18 local time on August 14. The trading platform later said in a statement:Stock market trading on the Moscow Exchange was suspended due to the detection of a software program error.

The statement said: "On August 14, 2024, on the stock market of the Moscow Exchange, due to the detection of a program error, it was decided to suspend trading from 16:18 Moscow time. Due to a software error, most access servers could not connect bidders. The software error was an incorrect memory operation on a single access server. The error has been fixed."

The statement also said that trading was suspended at 16:18 Moscow time on the 14th and resumed at 17:30 Moscow time (22:30 Beijing time).

The Moscow Exchange Index (MOEX) fell after trading resumed.

The Chinese concept stocks index fell.

Tencent ADR fell more than 4%. Earlier, Tencent handed in a brilliant second quarter report: total revenue was 161.1 billion yuan, an increase of 8% year-on-year; net profit was 47.6 billion yuan, an increase of 82% year-on-year; net profit under non-IFRS standards was 57.3 billion yuan, an increase of 53% year-on-year. For details, please click the link on the right to view - "

In addition, on the evening of August 14, data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the U.S. CPI rose 2.9% year-on-year in July, the first time to return to the "2-digit" level since March 2021, slightly lower than market expectations; the U.S. core CPI rose 3.2% year-on-year in July, the lowest growth rate since early 2021, in line with market expectations.

Nick Timiraos, a journalist who is regarded as a "Federal Reserve mouthpiece"The author stated that the July CPI data cleared the way for the Fed to start cutting interest rates at its next meeting. As the labor market has recently shown signs of potential weakness, the debate at the Fed's September meeting will focus on whether to cut interest rates by a traditional 25 basis points or a more substantial 50 basis points. The inflation data released on Wednesday did not resolve this debate. Instead, the debate may depend on labor market reports, including weekly initial jobless claims and the August non-farm payrolls report to be released on September 6. The inflation report released on Wednesday was mild, but the strong rise in housing costs may reduce enthusiasm for the data.